Question: What are the origins and history of using on tomorrow, on today, and on yesterday ** (which in standard Englishes are just tomorrow, today, and yesterday)? Examples: US Journal of the Senate (2006, all bold font added): ORDERS FOR ADJOURNMENT UNTIL 9 A.M. ON TOMORROW ...
american english - Origins and history of "on tomorrow", "on today ...
I think it is a good question. When there is yesterday morning and tomorrow morning, why have an exception for this morning (which means today's morning)? Yes, idiom, but I actually do like idiomatic extensions like these - as long as everybody knows what is meant and no grammar or semantic rules are violated...
Neither are clauses, but "today in the afternoon" is grammatical (adverbial phrase of time), while "today afternoon" is not. I would also suggest "this afternoon" as a more succinct and idiomatic alternative to "today in the afternoon".
word choice - 'Today afternoon' vs 'Today in the afternoon'? - English ...
The 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum et al., The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, would consider words like yesterday, today, tonight, and tomorrow as pronouns (specifically, deictic temporal pronouns). Related info is in CGEL pages 429, 564-5.
Which of the following is grammatical? What date/day is it today? What date/day is today?
Today had been the worst day of my life. seems awkward, as today is not understood to mean on this day (the original meaning). In narrative, an event that is happened in the past is narrated as it is the present, as in: It is the 1st of April, 2006. Today will be the worst day of my life. Outside that specific context, I would write